courage {Niall Horan}

XVIII

I was helping in the kitchen when I heard someone playing the guitar. I ignored it for a while untill I heard the first chords of jinglebells. I excused myself and when I stood in the doorframe I saw him playing my guitar and a lot of the kids singing along. It sounded pretty bad as we have no singing talents but they did it together and that's what counts.

I saw Jasmine sitting beside him and looked at them with a smile. I waited untill the song was done before going back to the kitchen to help. We were almost done with the main dish and they were preparing the drinks now. All of the kids I usually work with are helping with decorating so I get to play sous chef in the kitchen. The chef is one of the oldest girls who will be taken out of the orphanage system in a few months because she's getting too old. So today she gets to take control and is in charge of everything going correctly, which she seems to really like.

"I have to leave now" Niall said when he stood in the doorframe of the kitchen.

"I will be right back" I said to the chef before walking towards him. "Thank you so much for all the help today."

"It was amazing to see what you have made possible in such a short time." He replied with a smile. "If I wouldn't have made plans already, I would have loved to stay. Next year we will plan it better so you can come along too."

"Sounds like a great plan. Now go have fun and get wasted." I said before we hugged goodbye.

"I'll see you tomorrow for the christmas eve dinner." He said before walking away.

"Bye" I said before he got in his car. I went back inside quickly because it was so cold and seemed like it could start snowing any second.

—

I saw Niall's and Greg's car already in the driveway when I walked up to the door. I had to park a little further down the road and almost fell a few times because of the heavy snowfall today. I held onto the bottle of wine that I brought for the host. They had decided to do a secret santa and included me in the drawing. Luckily I had to get a present for Theo which was a lot easier, thanks to Niall's help.

I knocked on the door and waited trying not to freeze.

"I'll get it." I could hear Niall say inside the house. He opened the door and smiled when he saw me. "Hey"

"Hi" I said when I walked inside, he was wearing a nice button up white shirt so I was glad I decided to go for something fancy after all because I had no clue how fancy this was going to be.

"You look absolutely amazing." He said as he helped me out of my jacket and put it on the side.

"You don't look too bad yourself, no more headache?" I asked, he had send me a hundreth texts throughout the night ending with one this morning where he told his head was going to explode.

"It's still terrible but I'm trying to survive, the amount of alcohol I'm being given here isn't helping."

"If you drink enough, it will go away too." I said with a small laugh.

"Maybe next time we should just plan it another night, not the day before christmas eve." He said. We walked to the living room where everyone was sitting around the fireplace. Only their dad was still missing.

"Welcome to the sometimes slightly crazy Horan christmas dinner." Greg said as he stood up and hugged me.

"I'm glad I get to experience a crazy christmas dinner." I replied before saying hi to everyone else.

"Daddy, when can we go make a snowman?" Theo whined as he stood next to Greg.

"We are talking now with grandma, maybe tomorrow" he said gently and you could see the disappointment in Theo's face.

"Do you want to go make a snowman with me?" I asked and his smile grew immediately.

"Are you sure you don't mind?" Greg asked me a little surprised about my offer.

"Ofcourse not" I replied with a smile before looking at Theo, "let's go get our jackets." He ran excitedly to the door where both of our jackets were and put his on. I put mine on too and followed him to the garden.

"Let's make a very big one!" He said excitedly.

— Niall's POV —

I was watching them from inside as they were laughing and making a terrible looking snowman. Mom had already brought them a carrot and some buttons to make him complete. Occasionally we saw a few small snowballs fly around.

"What are you even waiting for?" Greg asked me as he stood beside me.

"She deserves someone that doesn't live across the world." I said slowly without moving my eyes from her. She was holding Theo up so he could decorate the face. "I could ask her to come with me, but her life is here and I don't want her to have to give up on what she has build and loves."

"Just don't close off any options without hearing her opinion on it."

"There are already plans on the table to make special youth houses all around the county and nearby counties. It's been a month since the release but she's already getting overwhelmed with requests of orphanages to work together." I said softly as it wasn't official yet.

"She has something that she can make international, so don't give up yet." He said before patting my back and going to the kitchen to help mom and Denise.

I went outside to go and get them for dinner. They hadn't seen me yet so I made a snowball and threw it perfectly against her back. She almost screamed before turning around. But I had no clue that they both already had a small snowball in their hand to use for the ears. I got them both in my direction quickly Theo missed me badly but she hit me right in the shoulder

"I just wanted to come say that dinner is ready." I said with a smile, she nodded before they both walked towards me. Theo ran straight past me and she walked towards me. She brushed the snow off my shoulder without looking at my face while I looked at hers. "Thank you for doing this for Theo"

"I don't mind at all, he seemed to be very happy to finally make a snowman." She said with a smile as she finally faced me. "Let's get back inside because I'm really hungry and cold."

I let her go in before me and watched her every step. I want to listen to Greg, but I can't be selfish.